Life is Expensive

Shew. It's been a week. You know you're back in the swing of things when ... right?

On Monday, my first delivery from Penguin Books arrived :D I am super excited ... since I review everything I read anyway, they asked me if I wanted to review some of their upcoming titles. Of. Course! So now I am trying to speed up finishing Dark Star Safari so I can move onto this new title, which looks right up my alley (they do ask if it sounds like something you're likely to be interested in before they send it tho). Such a toss up, the new book looks great, but I am really enjoying the bit I'm in, in Dark Star Safari, he's in Kenya & Uganda, in places I've actually been! So I don't want to just drop it. Plus I hate reading half a book then reading something in between then going back to the first one. I need to read it finished, then start something new ...

The evening was quiet, aside from The Trucker & I booking our flights to Cape Town for Xmas. Usually I would think October is sufficiently early enough for this task ... this year the prices are already sky-high. And that includes my Discovery Diamond discount! Eep.

Was a bit of a toss up with dates tho, since after The Gypsy Cat's frosty reception after our return from America, I'm nervous of leaving her for so long. But when you're paying over 2.5K for the flight, it seems worthwhile to sort of make it count. And so we are going for almost 2 weeks after all.

On Tuesday I got all annoyed. After having booked and paid and informed the fan-dam of when they can expect us, the emails started streaming in of when they were all going away. Um, thanks a lot. I go down, to see them, because I am the one who lives far away. It happens every year. So while I get that they can all see each other the rest of the year and that they're also on leave over xmas & new year, which means they want the opportunity to go away too, I wish any of them had said a word before we'd booked.

Perhaps we would've changed our dates and managed to get cheaper flights. Anyway, it's too late now. But next year I'll think twice about bothering. It's not like Cape Town is fun at that time of year, it's packed to the brim with people holiday-ing. But then again, what is Xmas without the family. Boring, I'll tell you. Maybe by next year The Trucker will be on better terms with his family and we'll spend xmas with them ...

Anyway, so that put me in a grumpy mood on Tuesday morning. Which continued to escalate during the work day. While I'm loving the project I'm on at the moment, that unfortunately crucial little bit about having to rely on other people to do their bits is wearing thin. #sigh

So I skipped SCM. I was not in the mood to be around people. And it turned out The Trucker had no plans either. So we got some Chinese take-out and watched some series. We're watching Orange is the new Black at the moment. I quite like it, he's finding it a little slow.

Yesterday I took the day off to do my annual doctor's day. I've been dreading it this year after the whole already-spent-my-msa-on-a-day-in-hospital thing ... And I wasn't wrong.

I was determined when I went to the dentist that I wasn't going to let him push me into doing x-rays. But then, when you're there in the chair and he recommends them because you haven't been in 2 years (because of the whole depleted MSA thing that is starting to happen earlier and earlier each year and the fact that I still have no fillings) and in order to make 100% sure there are no problems in those hard to reach and impossible to see spots in between the teeth ... well it makes sense for peace of mind.

And as he so kindly pointed out, waiting till you have a tooth ache means the problem has eroded pretty much down to the nerve which means it is now a massive problem to fix, instead of a minor one ... well I caved. And spent over a grand on that little half hour.

But, my teeth are still perfect and after a cleaning I was sent on my way.

Next stop, the gynae. I adore my gynae but, it was another grand for a half hour appointment ... and that doesn't include the blood test or pap results I'll still have to pay for o_0 Very exciting. I shared our plan to start trying for a kiddie next year. Hence the blood tests. Apparently they used to think that your childhood inoculation for German Measles and Chicken Pox was for life. Now apparently it's been shown to "wear off" in some people. So I'm getting blood tests to find out if I still have the anti-bodies and if not I'll have to get immunised again. And you aren't allowed to fall pregnant for 3 months after the immunisation. So best to get that done and out of the way now. We're also checking my blood type for possible rhesus, although I don't think I'm at high risk of that. When you're starting down this road as old as I'll be (34 next year!), I'm not mucking about with preventable things that can ruin a pregnancy.

She also recommended some vitamins I should start taking when I go off the pill. Eep. This feels like the first step ...  I mean deciding on when is one thing, it still feels fairly far away (6.5 months still), but taking steps towards that all going smoothly is making it a bit more real.

Anyway, should get the results on all that on Monday.

And remember this pic of Gypsy & Lily ...?



Yesterday I got this one. Haha. Brilliant :) I sprayed her with water to get her out after that tho because Lily went up to her and rubbed noses / sniffed at her. And then she swatted her, which is usually what happens to poor Lily when she gets up the courage to approach Gyps. Plus I figure it's Lily's house ... Gypsy can go in there, but she shouldn't be kicking Lily out!



Oh, and I realised I left something out of my USA Bermuda blog posts (skips off to update the relevant date now). Remember I ordered those Bold Loft pillow cases and they got lost in the mail (Not a total train-smash since they refunded me in the May). I figured, since I was gonna be in America, this was the perfect opportunity to re-order them. So I did. And they arrived while we were in New York and last night I got a photo of them in use :) Still adore them!